Ft. Myers tourism team talks tactics, millennials

Peter Yesawich, vice chairman of MMGY Global, was the keynote speaker in this year's annual Tourism Summit held at the Harborside Event Center in Downtown Fort Myers, Thursday morning. The event, which is put together by the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau, rolls out plans for the Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel advertising and promotions for the coming year.(Photo: Ricardo Rolon / The News-Press)Buy Photo

If you work in Lee County's lifeblood tourism and hospitality industry, there's reason to smile:

The future's so bright, you ought to wear shades.

Then, brace yourself for change: Millennials vacation differently than the baby boom generation. You need to get ready.

Those two messages rang out repeatedly Thursday at Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau's annual Team Tourism Summit.

About 250 people at Fort Myers' Harborside Event Center listened with rapt attention as county tourism promoter in chief Tamara Pigott and bureau second in command Pamela Johnson did the numbers.

"We're seeing some of the most incredible gains in the history of this destination," Pigott said.

For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30:

More than 3 million visitors used paid accommodations — a new high for the Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel — and a 32 percent increase year-over-year.

Visitors contributed an estimated $2.8 billion in direct spending to Lee's economy in fiscal 2014. That's a 3.5 percent increase over 2013, and 95 percent of the way to the Visitor & Convention Bureau's goal of $3 billion in spending by 2016.

For an industry that accounts for one in five jobs in Lee County, it sounds reassuring.

No one's taking a victory lap, however,

Peter Yesawich, summit keynote speaker and vice chairman of the MMGY Global advertising and marketing firm, noted that for years the baby boomers were the "market makers."

However, MMGY's yearly survey-based "Portrait of the American Traveler" shows it's time to make way for the Millennials.

This generation, ages 18-35 not only is more numerous than Boomers ages 50-68: It aspires to travel more than do the Boomers or the folks 69 or older, and by a significant margin, Yesawich said.

Here's the rub: Unlike boomers and their elders, millennials aren't content to merely relax on the beach, year after year.

Said Yesawich: "You have to continually reinvent the experience. There's a constant interest in novelty."

Millennials also have higher expectations for vacation lodging furnishings and amenities, and are less likely to stay at traditional hotels than are their elders, according to the MMGY research.

For hoteliers it means "a completely different train of thought from the past 20 years," said John Lai. He's president of the Inns of Sanibel, which has four Gulf-front resorts on the island.

Lai also is president of Lee County Hotel Association, which is nudging members to update their properties.

For the next generation of savvy travelers, "high-speed Internet, flat-screen HDTV are not optional," Lai noted.

Lai said he's "excited about the optimistic outlook" of county tourism promoters, then paused to add that catering to Millennials "is going to require some outside-the-box thinking."

Connect with this reporter @Alvascribe (Twitter) and LauraPatrickRuane (Facebook).

On the money

Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau will make $7.3 million in media buys in the year ahead.

The money comes from the 5 percent tax that's levied on short-term lodging rentals in the county

Here's the media mix:

Digital: 51 percent

Magazine: 17 percent

TV: 10 percent

International/Air service: 8 percent

Newspaper: 7 percent

Group/Meetings: 4 percent

Radio: 3 percent

The total advertising and promotions budget rises to $10 million when other marketing-related expenses are added. These include advertising production, the FortMyers-Sanibel.com website, electronic customer relationship management and social media.

Some highlights:

TV buy will be extended to include Chicago, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.